Sanditon

I've never bothered with Sanditon because Austen didn't finish it and, really, no one could manage to complete it properly. I found this at the Simon's Town Library sale and couldn't resist, since it was cheap and right in front of me. Apparently this version is the one that was completed by a woman who sometimes calls herself Marie Dobbs and sometimes Ann Telscombe and quite possibly other things as well. Austen wrote the first eleven chapters before her illness caused her to be too weak to continue.

In the first eleven chapters we are introduced to Charlotte Heywood, likely to be the heroine, who is taken out of her home environment to Sanditon, a seaside resort, through a chance encounter with Mr and Mrs Parker. Mr Parker's relatives - an excessively meddlesome (Miss Diana Parker) and hypochondriac (Miss Parker and Mr Arthur Parker) family - come to visit and we meet his friends - the wealthy and autocratic Lady Denham, her repulsive relations Sir Edward and Miss Denham and her companion-niece Miss Brereton - in the neighbourhood.

The first eleven chapters are short, but there are all of Austen's hallmarks in the characters presented. The existence and likely arrival of other characters (the wealthy Miss Lambe from the West Indies, Mr Sidney Parker, the girls school) is mentioned and there things ended for many years.

This continuation is attempted to be in Austen's style and to have a plot similar to all her others (marriage after misunderstandings/difficulties for worthy couple). Unfortunately the other lady is not Austen and it shows. The plot is a simple romance with plenty of misdirection and meddling. There is none of Austen's brilliance and there is a shocking lack of character development. The heroine comes across as rather unintelligent and very priggish. Few of the characters are terribly likeable and most of the plotting is blazingly obvious.

It was a fun read, but unless you wish to read everything ever written that's remotely related to Austen, I wouldn't recommend it.

Emma

This beautiful item was a birthday gift from a couple of friends of mine. It is absolutely wonderful! SJW had found the first four issues online, but I refused to read it until I could read it in full, which is what is collected in this beautiful volume. It tells the story of Emma without deviating from the novel too obviously. There are a few points that weren't mentioned, that I would have liked to see in, such as the fact that Mrs Bates was the widow of the previous vicar of Highbury. The lack of John Knightley and the children's second visit was a bit annoying, but worked very well. Like most movie adaptations, one has to accept that an adaptation does things differently. Particularly in the way that backstory is dealt with, which I think this did very well. The way they kept referring to Mr Elton as the rector annoyed me, but I suspect it's due to the language differences between the UK and the US. I must admit that the US spelling did not bother me in the slightest.

The art was not brilliant, but managed to capture the style of the characters and the feeling of the book. I would've preferred it to be a little less cartoony and a little more realistic, but that's simply a matter of individual taste. I occasionally had a little difficulty distinguishing the men from each other, particularly in the case of the Knightley brothers, but I imagine they would look quite similar.

If you enjoy Austen and graphic novels, then this is a must! I shall have to locate the others in the series, so far Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

Call After Midnight

This is not part of the Rizzoli and Isles series, but is one of Gerritsen's stand-alone books. I have to say I was not particularly impressed. This is a fairly standard spy thriller with obligatory romantic sub-plot and, really, not up to Gerritsen's usual standard. It's a fun, quick read that is fairly well written and doesn't require much brain power and that's about the best that can be said about it.

Tolkien and the Great War: the Threshold of Middle Earth

This is an amazing book. I've never really read much about the First World War. Anyone who's so much as glanced at my non-fiction shelves or GoodReads stats will note a decided preponderance of works relating to the Second World War, but nothing on the First. Everything I know about the First World War is due to Sue Harsant, who taught me history in high school (and I shall never forget her complaining after an exam/test/assignment that we should not simply say Ferdinand, because she might think we were referring to Ferdinand the Bull who went traipsing through the daisies. Her very dry sense of humour delighted myself and Tiina Napoleon at the time).

Anyway, the point of that long aside was that this is the first work I've ever read about the First World War and so was my first glimpse into the horrors of trench warfare. I had an intellectual understanding that it was a horrific thing, but I didn't understand. I still don't, thankfully, but now I have a greater idea of what about it was so horrific. Of what it was like to be there, what happened to people on the ground. On the one hand it makes me glad for the 'advances' of mechanised warfare. At the same time, those same supposed advances terrify me. No longer does individual kill individual, now machine destroys machine and life from afar. I know they had machine guns and bombs and so on, but on the whole they could at least see who they were killing. The horror of war, and the facts of war - the facts being that you are killing individuals that are really no different from yourself - were up close and personal. They no longer are.

At the same time as this works as a general introduction (for me) to the First World War (because you can be sure I'm going to be looking for more on the subject now), it also works really well as a biographical work on Tolkien. Specifically with regard to the effect that his experiences in the war and in the Battle of the Somme particularly must have had on his writing. You cannot go through an experience of that sort without undergoing profound changes. There's a fair amount of speculation on the author's part because Tolkien was extremely reticent regarding those experiences. That speculation is backed up by fairly solid reasoning (in my completely uncritical opinion) and while I'm of the opinion that you can never know exactly how things influenced the creative process, you can work out a fair amount, especially when it's something as significant as this.

If you're interested in either the First World War or Tolkien, I'd recommend this.

The End of the Affair

I'm not sure that this was the best book to read after Cold Mountain, but that's what I did. This book was less depressing, though I must say that I rather suspected the ending. I was wrong about the path that lead to the end, however. I was not expecting a sudden pact with a god that one didn't truly believe in. I was not expecting the truth of just why Sarah wasn't doing what she was supposed to be doing. I thought she had cancer or something and was seeing some kind of kooky healer. The religious undertones to the book completely surprised me.

I have to say that I was very pleased to be wrong about the journey to get to the end. It's not often that this kind of story can surprise you, though that might have been less true when it was written.

Now, what I really want to know is whether or not this book should be considered a classic. Read it and tell me what you think.

Cold Mountain

This is a very sad book. Set during the American civil war, Cold Mountain follows the story of Inman, a Confederate deserter trying to get home, and Ada, a woman with no idea how to survive on her farm.

I personally found the sections about Inman to be on the less interesting side. It does get a bit more interesting once he starts running into the Home Guard, who are on the lookout for deserters. I suspect that says more about me than about Frazier's skill as an author. I much preferred the chapters that dealt with Ada's struggles, particularly after the introduction of Ruby. I adore the character of Ruby. I can relate most easily to the abstract academic life of Ada. Ruby, on the other hand, is earthy, superstitious and entirely focused on survival. The contrast between the two of them is fantastic.

Personally, I could have done without the semi-happy ending of the epilogue. I think ending with Inman dying in Ada's arms would have been perfectly appropriate, if rather depressing.

Howards End

This is one of those classic books that people talk about vaguely as being significant for some or other reason and something that, really, everyone should have read, presumably while at school. Considering the vast amount of classic literature one is expected to absorb while at school it's a miracle one finds the time for anything else. While searching for images of the book cover (which is not this one, but this one is pretty and I couldn't find mine) I discovered that the movie stars Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson (who I loved together in Remains of the Day) and Helena Bonham-Carter. I shall have to see it now.

Anyway, this book is about class struggle and other social things in turn of the century England. It's exceptionally well written and I'll be on the lookout for other works by Forster in my charity-shop scouring. His writing is evocative and there's an underlying sense of camaraderie that's difficult to explain.

As far as I can tell the class struggle is between rich and poor and where one's social responsibility lies. You have the vulgar, wealthy Wilcox family, concerned only with themselves and their accumulation of wealth and power. There are the Schlegel sisters, academic, concerned and determined to help anyone they deem worthy. Then there are the Basts, proud, downtrodden and victims of prevailing social norms. Mix them altogether and one gets a book reminiscent of Austen at her best.

This is a quiet story. The thing that remains strongest with me is the Tolkienesque (is that really fair, considering Forster predates Tolkien?) description of Howards End and surroundings, the sturdiness of the land and the depressing, ever present removal of humanity from any consciousness of it. At the same time, this is one of those books that provokes subtle shifts in your subconscious without your permission or your notice. Read it, it's worth it.

As Darkness Falls

Everytime I see the words "Darkness Falls" I think of that X-Files episode. It was my favourite episode for a long time (it may still be). This book is a bit like a Criminal Minds episode, except in Australia, without the FBI and ... actually it's nothing like a CM episode, never mind.

This is a romance novel. It's also a murder mystery, child abduction investigation that is very well written. I'm not usually a big fan of romance novels because they're not very interesting. This, however, is a romance novel in the vein of the In Death series. The romance is important, more important than if it were a sub-plot, but it's not the main focus of the story. Essentially, what the romantic nature of the story does is enable you to see the main characters as more than just detectives. Also, it takes the story past the conclusion of the case and enables greater development of the characters.

In short, Bronwyn Parry has written a fantastic debut novel and I'm dying to get my hands on her next book.

Lady Chatterley's Lover

I just finished this in the bath and find myself both disappointed and enchanted.

Why am I disappointed? This book has been called pornographic and a great many other insulting and unpleasant things. Perhaps it says something about the world we live in that words like 'fuck' and 'penis' simply aren't that shocking. The sex scenes were not graphic and there was nothing pornographic and, as far as I can tell, nothing that came close. Of course, I'm not exactly an expert in such things, all I can say is that fanfic (of any genre) is generally far more graphic.

Why then am I enchanted? For a multitude of reasons. There's something distinctly Tolkienish about the world in the book. The slow steady creep of industrialisation and the loss of trees and fields. Every second passage brought Tolkien to my mind. Also, this is a well-written love story that also manages to encapsulate all the uncertainty there was between the two world wars, particularly as regards the English class system. Already the system was breaking down, as industrialisation spread and filthy trade became more important than the landed gentry.

In short, this is a wonderfully written romance that covers series topics as well. Also, there are one or two intimate scenes that are heart-warming (there are others that make you wonder whether or not the protagonists are actually having sex or not, which is not how I understand pornography to work). It's worth reading because it's a classic and because of the impact it had on literature in general. It's also worth reading because it's a good story, if somewhat slow and detached from the world in which we live now.

Love in a Fallen City

This is a lovely book that I picked up at a Wordsworth book sale shortly after seeing Lust, Caution (a movie and experience I enjoyed greatly) with theOtherAmy. This is a set of short stories written by the same author. It's a book of beautifully written stories set in China in the early 20th century. I don't know much about translating works into English, but this seemed very well done as it kept the lyrical quality that I imagine the original Chinese had. It seems terribly wrong to call it 'Chinese' but I don't know enough about the Chinese languages to be more specific.

These are beautifully written, lyrical tales that evoke an atmosphere of a time I never knew. Read them if you can.

Emma

There's a charity book fair at the V&A Waterfront this weekend. You should go and buy books. I'm going to (because that's a surprise).

Anyway, Emma is not one of my favourite Austen's. I enjoy the book and I like the characters but I can't stand to reread it very often. This is because Emma's behaviour makes me cringe. It's just embarrassing. Having read it multiple times I know what the reality of everyone's behaviour is and to read Emma misreading virtually everything around her and being so oblivious to the truth is just too much. I can't handle it very often. And the Box Hill scene! Emma's snobbery and unthinking cruelty is just too painful for me to read. Mrs Elton's snobbery, pretentiousness and so on is hysterically funny. And dear Miss Bates is such a font of information if you only know what she's really saying (particularly since she usually doesn't).

If you haven't read Emma, I recommend it.

Later Days in Highbury

This is a sequel to Jane Austen's Emma written by Austen's great-grand-niece or something similar. Actually, this is a sequel to a sequel (or whatever the word is for the same book through someone else's eyes - A Visit to Highbury) but this is the one that the library had. Austen-Leigh writes well. She focuses on minor characters and new characters. She manages to make the new characters interesting people that you care about. She doesn't do anything too awful to existing characters - they appear to be acting as they would if written by Austen. The opinions certain characters hold about certain other characters are not always ones I'd agree with and I do wonder which viewpoint is the author's own.

This is an Austen sequel that I would recommend.

Mansfield Park

A good long time ago, before I read Northanger Abbey, this was my least favourite Jane Austen. It has since grown on me, such that it's one of my favourites. Austen's novels are, for me, divided into three categories: favourites (Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park), enjoyed (Pride and Prejudice, Emma) and disliked (Northanger Abbey). I imagine every Austenite has their own division of the novels, but I imagine to the non-initiated, the fact that Pride and Prejudice is not the automatic favourite of every lover of Austen may be surprising.

Anyway, I was recently watching MP1 and was struck by how much better it is than I remember it. It really brings out some aspects of the novel that I think are frequently missed. For a start, Fanny's strength. Fanny Price is generally considered the most insipid of Austen's heroines. She is not outspoken, she is not brave. She is timid and religious in a way that is grating to modern sensibilities. However, what most people don't realise is that she has a strength of character that is overlooked by readers as much as her family. She knows what is right and wrong and she is not prepared to compromise her principles, no matter how you may beg her. She knows that Henry Crawford was inappropriate in his behaviour to the Miss Bertrams and she will not be prevailed on to think otherwise. Unlike Edmund, her eyes are not blinded to the faults of the Crawfords or her own relations because of this strength of character. Fanny is overlooked and unappreciated, yet she does not use that as an excuse to change her behaviour and her attitude to the prevailing one around her. She sticks to her principles and it is this that has endeared her to me over the years. Hers is a quiet strength that requires much observation to be seen.

If you've read Mansfield Park and disliked Fanny, read it again with this in mind. She's still annoyingly timid and preachy, but she's nowhere near as insipid as she appears.

Sense and Sensibility

Since that thing down on the side of my blog says that I'm Elinor Dashwood, I thought it appropriate that I review a Jane Austen. Unsurprisingly I picked Sense and Sensibility. This novel ties with Persuasion for my favourite Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility is the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne (there's a younger sister, Margaret, who is almost a non-character except in the 1995 adaptation). Elinor represents sense, she is responsible and always does her duty. Marianne represents sensibility (closer to sensitivity than sensible), she is emotional and open, everyone knows how she feels and she indulges her emotions at every possible opportunity. The novel is the journey that the sisters take to discovering a middle ground. Marianne learns to appreciate the feelings of other and be less selfish. Elinor learns to occasionally let people in and not always hide her feelings from those close to her. This was the first novel Austen had published and the language reflects that. In places the language is very dense and it's difficult to get into the book, unless you appreciate the language. This is, however, one of Austen's most convoluted and intriguing romances and, in my opinion, one of her best.

How I Live Now

Daisy is sent from New York to live with relatives in England because her stepmother doesn't like her. Or something, that bit isn't important. What is important is how she interacts with these new-found relatives who live out in the country. Next thing you know, there's a war on and the only adult in the house is in a different country.

This is a story of survival in the face of horror, and tenacity. It's a story of how bonds are made and sustained. It's a 'young adult' book, which I usually take to mean children, along with things like Nancy Drew and the Twilight series (neither of which you'll find on my bookshelves, though I have read them). This is not a story I'd recommend for anyone under sixteen. It's a harsh, sometimes graphic description of the horrific reality of war and the effects that exposure to this can have on people - both individually and as a group.

It's a fantastic book, well-written and I heartily recommend it to adult readers.

In Death

Typing is a little difficult, after yesterday's adventure under the ground with the giant, evil porcupine. At least I can type, rather than pecking at the keyboard with one hand as I imagine poor Maretha will be forced to do (or try to do, depending on when the morphine wears off). I admit, emergency rooms are much more bearable when you're not the injured one. Also, it's easier to be philosophical.

This is not the point of this post, though. The point of this post is the In Death series by JD Robb (Nora Roberts). I love detective novels. For most of my childhood I dreamt of being a policeman, a detective, an FBI agent - whoever happened to have captured my fancy at the time. Given the arthritis, it would never have happened. Also, given my reaction to being surprised by a perfectly harmless porcupine (assuming, of course, one doesn't walk right into it), I don't think chasing down criminals is probably a smart thing for me to do. Presumably the training would help, but still. So I have a love of crime fiction, as well as crime non-fiction.

One of the things I love about this series is that despite featuring violent murder and other crimes in every book, the one set of covers features these beautifully peaceful images. A lovely dichotomy. The books are set in the future, though not too far, of New York. Eve Dallas is the injured, hard-nosed cop and Roarke is her criminally-inclined fantastically rich and perfect-in-all-ways lover/boyfriend/husband as the series progresses. It's fun, it's fluffy and there's a wonderfully familiar ring about it, despite the futuristic nature of just about everything.

Addition

This is a book for the obsessive-compulsive in all of us. There's no obsessive-compulsive in you? Weird. I'm somewhat obsessive, not very compulsive. Or, rather, I'm not clinically compulsive. Not the kind of compulsive that one thinks about when one hears the word 'compulsive'. I don't feel compelled to do things by some sort of bizarre or grandiose fear that the world is going to end of everyone I know is going to die (well, I do occasionally, but that's usually a compulsion to stay in bed). I'm compelled to fidget, constantly, though some people call that hyperactivity. I have some pretty bizarre mental processes that are required for me to do certain things. I like things to be symmetrical (or at least sensibly asymmetrical), in alphabetical order, in the correct colour order, in the order of size. But I don't have rituals. I'm not a hand-washer. And I don't count the way Grace Lisa Vandenburg does.

Sometimes, I'll count things, absent-mindedly (and sometimes very mindfully, like breaths in yoga), but I've never met anyone who counts things the way Grace Lisa Vandenburg does. She taught maths for a while, only she lost her job because she had a breakdown because things weren't just so. So now she lives on disability (the book was written by an Australian and is set there) and counts. And then she meets Seamus Joseph O'Reilly. Actually, she steals his banana (he didn't need it and she only had nine! Really, it wasn't so much stealing as saving the world from a fate worse than death) and they meet after that. Grace likes Seamus, Seamus likes Grace. Grace counts, Seamus thinks Grace would be better off not counting. And here we have a lovely story about what exactly constitutes mental health and who has the right to decide how a person is able to be their best. Also, it's a quirky romance that's well-written.

Cecilia: an ex-Nun's Extraordinary Journey

I'm beginning to think that it would be simpler to just photograph the books myself. At least then I'd get decent sized pictures. On the other hand, that involves cables and effort and so on, so it's unlikely to happen.

A year and a day before I was born, Cecilia left the Sisters of Mercy convent she'd spent her entire adult life in and became an ordinary woman again. This memoir covers parts of her childhood, particularly as relates to her decision to enter the Convent. It covers a fair amount of life in the convent and the doubts and concerns she had to deal with. It then advances on the challenges and excitement of entering the secular world, around the age of 40, rather than 20.

This is a touching story, one I recommend for anyone interested in what could drive someone to enter into the religious life in this way. The Sisters of Mercy seems to be a particularly strict order and things are, of course, not done in the same way as when Cecilia was a member of that order, but it's still an interesting life to read about. It's also an interesting version of the traditional coming of age story, if you choose to look at it in that way.

Stephanie Plum

I like a good mystery story, no matter what age group it's aimed at. I also like a certain amount of romantic chick-lit (for a particular definition of 'romantic') and, as an adult reader, nothing makes a mystery more enjoyable than a murder. On the other hand, as we've already discussed, I'm a little on the morbid side and probably don't have quite the normal response towards death and the dead (for a given value of normal, of course).

I have read all the numbered books in this series (though I don't own them all) and one of the four 'between the numbers' novels. Though a quick glance at the author's website tells me that number sixteen is about to come out. The first book (One for the Money) is nowhere near as good as the later ones, though I do think there comes a point where the series needs to stop. I don't know that this series has reached that point yet, it's difficult to tell. The books are just pure fun, complete fluff and require absolutely no brain power. In fact, the less brain power the better, as you're less likely to notice how incredibly ridiculous the entire thing is. Stephanie Plum is exceptionally well written in that she's both the clumsy, awkward girl we all are, as well as being the woman we'd all like to be, what with the combination of Morelli and Ranger being all over her.

If you've got an afternoon to kill and are in the mood for something light and fun, these are a must read. And the best part is that there's no need to read them in order, even though earlier events are occasionally referenced.